Parental Guidance (Ice Knights #1)(56)

“I made it happen on my own,” Ian said. “They aren’t trading me.”

“Yeah, I know. They told me last week before they gave me the A.” Smiling, Caleb slapped his hand down on the other man’s shoulder. “The front office wants to have your damn babies now—especially after that game against Detroit. They’re looking at you like the glue this team was missing last season.”

The vein in Ian’s temple pulsed, and his jaw was clamped shut so tightly, she worried a dentist would need to get called in to fix his teeth, but after a few tense seconds, he relaxed. “Next time, don’t think you can fly in and fix things without telling people first. You are always pulling that shit.”

“You are,” Phillips said, sitting down at the table as if it hadn’t just been World War III. “Even with that stupid video, you took the heat on your own. You’re not alone out there, you know. We can help you, too.”

“Jesus,” Zach grumbled, popping open two beers and handing one to Fallon. “Are you gonna sit here and talk about your feelings the whole afternoon? Because you are ruining my appetite.”

“Always the charmer,” Fallon said, shaking her head.

He winked at his girlfriend. “Only for you.”

All the tension in the air around them disappeared as Zach and Fallon started eating their cheeseburgers as if Ian and Caleb hadn’t just almost come to blows. Everyone else seemed to treat the moment that way, too, walking off to grab a beer or a burger. Finally, Caleb sat down and picked up a burger from one of the overloaded plates, then pushed the plate to her.

“Sorry about that,” she said, wondering how in the world she was going to make it up to him. “I forgot that he didn’t know.”

“I should have told him, let him in from the beginning.” Caleb shrugged and took a bite. “I guess I’m more like my mom than I realized. She’s always pulling this crap where she thinks she knows what’s best for someone and just does it without even asking first.”

“Kinda like suggesting the Bramble stunt to Lucy?” Fallon asked.

Zara’s chin almost hit the table. Caleb must have been just as shocked because for once, he didn’t have a response. He just stared at Fallon, his eyes wide.

“Why are you so shocked?” Zach asked. “You said yourself that your mom is known for her behind-the-scenes planning and play-making.”

“I can’t believe it,” Zara said, thinking back on her interactions with Britany to see if there had been any hint, any clue that she’d missed.

Caleb threw back his head and laughed. “I can. As she always says, you don’t get to be at the top of your game by playing it soft.” He turned to Zara, heat in his eyes. “You gotta fight to make it happen.”

Her breath caught, and a million words swirled around in her head, all of them a bad idea when it came to keeping her heart in one piece. The truth of it was that it was already too late. Maybe not in reality, but her heart had broken rule number one, and she had no idea what to do about it.

Before she could accidentally voice any of that, though, Ian, Cole, and Alex grabbed Caleb’s chair, carried it over to the deep end, and dumped him—burger and all—into the water. They may have been pranking Caleb, but she couldn’t help but think they’d just saved her from saying something she was bound to regret.

It was, after all, rule number one: five dates and done.

…

On the day sandwiched between the team barbecue and their final preseason road trip out west, Caleb had one thing on his mind—seeing Zara. They’d been able to FaceTime a few minutes here and there, but nothing like before. She’d been working all hours to finish up her miniatures scene for the Friends of the Library silent auction during the organization’s ball in a few days. Meanwhile, he’d been spending more time in the sin bin than Coach Peppers liked after a few players got chippy with him and brought Zara into the on-ice discussion.

But today? Today he was taking the steps up to her apartment two at a time to get to her door just a few seconds sooner. He made it to her floor, and his phone vibrated. Since he had a meeting scheduled in a little bit with Lucy, he couldn’t ignore it.

The notification, though, wasn’t from her. It was from the Bramble app. The app’s icon now had a big red circle with the number four inside it, notifying him of how many days it had been since his first reminder to schedule date number five. He’d been ignoring the notifications, a practice he had no plans to change.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to, because the Bramble people were calling Lucy and Lucy was calling him and the whole world wanted this PR stunt wrapped up by the first game of the regular season—except for him. And that’s why he was outside of Zara’s apartment, knocking on the door instead of using the app to officially schedule their final date.

“Hey there,” she said, using her entire body to keep an excitedly wiggling Anchovy from bursting out into the hall.

She looked delectable. Her hair was up in a big poof on top of her head, and she had on a pair of yoga pants and an Ice Knights sweatshirt that he’d never seen her in before. If it was his number, he wasn’t going to remember his promise to himself to play it cool. There was just— She turned around to shush Anchovy, and he saw the number. It was his.